


Nulla Salus Bello

by Nia_dAstarte



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 2x11, Brooklyn, Domestic Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Emotional, Emotional Baggage, Introspection, M/M, POV Magnus Bane, Spoilers, Sweet Magnus, the world is beautiful
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-09
Updated: 2017-06-09
Packaged: 2018-11-11 15:25:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11151228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nia_dAstarte/pseuds/Nia_dAstarte
Summary: Long after Magnus is back in his own body, long after he goes again suavely about his business as High Warlock of Brooklyn, he still wonders what Alec was thinking. Coda to 2x11.





	Nulla Salus Bello

“Magnus, stop him!”

The things is, Magnus cannot.

Once it is all over, once he is back in his body and no longer fearing for his life and suavely going about his business again as the High Warlord of Brooklyn should, Magnus will come back to that moment. When Alec asked him to stop Azazel.  
Azazel.

What was Alec thinking?

Magnus is sitting on the balcony of his loft, sipping a GT, with gin from this lovely microbrewery on the Philippines. It is soft. Tastes like velvet. The tonic water gives it a little sparkle, but not too much. It is warm out. Sitting there, tasting the nuances of the fine gin, hand-crafted with so much care, Magnus realises that he and Alec are from different worlds in one more way: Alec is a warrior. Magnus is not.

It is not that he could not have been. There are warlocks who are fearsome in battle, so fearsome that no shadowhunter would dare cross their path. But that was never what Magnus wanted. He always wanted to portal. To protect. To heal.

That is why Institutes all over the world come to him for their barriers. That is why he could keep Alec alive even as his spirit was already on its way to the other side, his calls for his parabatai going unheeded. That is why he can sit on his balcony in the firm knowledge that not even Azazel could break his barriers, not the one around his loft, not the one protecting Alec at the Institute.

That has always been what Magnus wanted. Not to destroy the world, but save it. To eliminate all borders with his portals, protect it with his barriers, and heal it with his magic.

Stars are reflected in the water of the Hudson, his old friend. It is summer, the air so warm. He thinks of the bustling streets of Tokyo and their glaring screens; of the deep rain forests in Costa Rica, of the lioness he met a century ago in Namibia, of the Louvre, of seas all over the world under storms and sunshine.

He shall never be a warrior. Even after all this, Magnus does not want to be. Even after all this, he still believes that love will win out.  
It is then that he hears footsteps in the hallway. Then that his door swings open. Steps on the carpet. Steps of a young shadowhunter. Too young to speak to friend Hudson, or the lioness in the high grass, or the soul of da Vinci through the eyes of the Mona Lisa.

Magnus turns around. Sees that smile. 

But not too young to love.

Thank Gods.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first venture into the Shadowhunters fandom. It just struck me as an incredibly strong moment when, in episode 2x11, Alec called for Magnus to save them and Magnus could not. I thought it would be interesting to explore this from Magnus's point of view. Title taken from Vergil: Nulla salus bello, pacem to poscimus omnes. "We all ask you for peace, as there is no good in war."


End file.
